


What Matters Most

by ladyofdragons



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Drinking, F/M, First Dates, Fluff and Angst, Mostly fluff though, Picnics, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-01-01
Packaged: 2018-03-04 16:01:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3073796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyofdragons/pseuds/ladyofdragons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The tags pretty much say it all. An exchange fic for Dataglitch over on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Matters Most

**Author's Note:**

> This is set sometime in the early part of MTMTE S2. I started it before we found out about the plot twist involving Brainstorm, then afterwards I was almost MORE determined to write it and reflect that in his inner thoughts. So a re-write happened and this was the result. (Also excuse the fuzzy science here, I am not as smart as the characters are!)

He stood quietly in the doorway, checking his chrono every 30 seconds and peering down the hall, listening for any approaching footfalls. Well, as quietly as a nervous jet could stand, with twitching flight panels and venting that sighed occasionally because he kept holding it in.

Any average passerby might think Brainstorm was up to something that varied on a scale between questionable and nefarious. This was evidenced by the nervous nature, the stiff manner in which he held himself, and the overly casual way he told people that 'fine, fine, things were fine' and 'oh nothing' when asked why he was lingering in the aft observation lounge of the Lost Light....looking down the hall and not out the windows.

Well, up to something he was, in a sense, and he checked his chrono again and then the calendar entry for the meeting to compare times. "...must be having second thoughts..." He muttered to himself, more disappointed than bitter, resolving to wait another five minutes before going home where he could feel the fool in private. The nervous tapping of his footplate almost covered her approach from a side door, so when he turned, Brainstorm's vision was full of Nautica as she hastened up to him, beaming an apologetic smile.

"I'm so sorry," she reached out, fingertips brushing his arm in a beseeching gesture, "I got lost in the engineering sector, took a wrong turn at the coolant tanks and ended up distracted. This ship is quite phenomenal, the quantum engines alone..."

And then she seemed to realize she was babbling, just a touch, issuing a soft chuckle at herself, thankfully missing the way Brainstorm's optics seem fixed on that small place on his arm that still tingled with her touch. He gave a cough and shuffle of his feet, meeting her eyes again with a nervous laugh that tried to sound casual, and succeeding even less that he had before. "No, no. Think nothing of it. Happens to everyone right? Big ship, many decks, one aft observation lounge..."

Okay Brainstorm, now was not the time for that train of thought. She's brilliant and deserved better than the editorial treatment. 

"So do I get to see it? I brought my half." Nautica held up her travel case, her selections inside. That had been their agreement: he chose the venue for this date, she brought the refreshment. It'd been a clear tactical choice for Brainstorm, he'd heard about her choosiness from Swerve regarding engex, (along with many other things of dubious validity) so rather than risk choosing in error he opted for picking the venue. And he's rather proud of himself too. 

Sure, Brainstorm had considered a tour of his lab at first, but when Swerve had agreed, 'Yeah, take her to your lab, show her all your cool inventions and make her feel overwhelmed and belittled by your greatness!' Well, he changed his mind. That was when he remembered Drift mentioning the aft observation lounge and its skydeck. A place the swordmech used to go when he need space to think, to meditate, when he wanted to go uninterrupted.

'Space'. In more ways that one. Ahhh he's so clever, he should really find a way to use that conversation! Hmm yes.

A second pair of mangaclamps dangled from his hand, clanking softly against the every-present briefcase, his own pair already fitted to his footplates. "Oh. Of course! Follow me. Please." The last came almost as an afterthought; it'd been a long time since he had someone he respected enough to worry about such pleasantries. It felt weird, but....nice. Immeasurably nice.

Nautica's violet helm turned in a slow 180, taking in the whole of the lounge--not impressively large but still well appointed--including the broad expanse of windows that held a sea of stars and the whispering eddies of the Lost Light's vapor trail. "This view, it's spectacular!"

"Oh, no, it's not _that_ great." Brainstorm said haughtily from across the room, poised at a set of pressure doors for an airlock. "I can show you better."

Nautica perked, her audial antennae twitching in interest. The ladybot had an apparent taste for adventure. Brainstorm could only guess she'd been relegated to a lab back home, the engineering department, a classroom or the like, because the way she leapt into battle or volunteered for dangerous space sojourns spoke of someone who had a taste for adventure but had never really felt its bite.

Well, there won't be any biting on this little adventure, not if he had anything to say about it. Or. Maybe. If the light radiation fell in his favor, there'd be biting of the good kind.

AHEM. FOCUS.

He gestured that she sit, and after some fumbling with fingers unreasonably twitchy with nerves (really, how dare they)--especially considering the way she watched him curiously with those bright and uniquely aqua optics--Brainstorm got the magnaclamps in place. 

He punched in a code at the airlock's access panel, moving aside to let the lady enter. "Not many people come out here," he explained as they finally walked the hull of the ship towards a flat area above the expanse of the observation lounge windows. "Something about wanting to see where we're going, not where we've been..."

But something else had grabbed Nautica's attention again, her helm tilted up, drawn by the gentle creak of the massive red fuel quills that stretched overhead, as if reaching out to touch the stars. Well the stars were in her eyes for the moment, and Brainstorm had to reach out to cup an elbow and guide her remaining steps towards the relative safety of the skydeck.

"The quills. I never imagined them quite this large... The amount of energy conversion they must do..." 

"My thoughts exactly." From his storage compartment Brainstorm pulled a tight roll of some high density material, flinging one edge out with a flourish so it blanketed the center of the skydeck, just large enough to for both of them to sit. And sit they could, because once he switched the device on, it created a low yield grav field, clinging invisibly to anything it came in contact with. "Please, do have a seat..."

Nautica certainly looked impressed, though not enough to inquire if it was his invention or not (and perhaps that's for the best really, seeing as how picnicking on the hull of a starship is not exactly this grav stabilizer net's intended purpose. Securing weapons loads in zero-G, maybe not as romantic as fuel quills.)

She settled delicately next to him, pouring each of them a cylinder of engex with a practiced hand, making certain there was no excess froth or disruption of the mix. To Brainstorm she handed the one with the straw, its mixture an inverse of hers, color gradating from light to dark instead of dark to light. "This vintage has a palate change as it's consumed, thus, yours is inverted so that it may be enjoyed in the proper manner."

Nautica beamed softly at him, before turning her gaze back to the view. Brainstorm was glad for the facemask then; he was touched that someone would have such consideration for him, remember small details like a simple straw, and the emotion might show on his face, too raw and untempered.

But Nautica missed it--or made a show of missing it, he's not sure which--as she seemed more intrigued by the iridescent ribbons of vapor trail that was the Lost Light's wake. Brainstorm sipped his engex, straw fitting easily through the mouth hatch in his facemask, before speaking. "The ship was chosen for its quantum jump capacity; the fuel requirements alone are impressive." Though everyone on the ship probably knew that. "But did you know, that if the situation called for it, the quills could be used offensively too?"

"Oh?"

"I mean it'd certainly be a desperate measure and there'd be some preparation needed of course, to protect the integrity of the quantum engines themselves, and it'd expend what fuel reserves there were, but it would be quite spectacular, I assure you." And devastating. Most likely. For...them. Whoever 'them' might happen to be.

There was another one of her thoughtful little chuckles. Is that what drew him to her, he wonders, the open and honest way she laughs, but without condescension? 

"You can weaponize anything it seems, Brainstorm."

"But of course! What kind of weapons engineer would I be otherwise!?" They share a laugh then, but there's something in the tone that seems off. It fades into silence after bouncing off into space. Brainstorm shuffles his feet on the grav blanket. "Does that...bother you?"

Nautica turns a face to him, calm and collected, but earnest in the gentle smile she gives. "No. I think it's a grand measure of your creativity. What matters most is how those weapons are used."

Relief washed over him in a comforting wave, more comforting than he'd choose to admit perhaps. Why did so few people understand that notion? _Some things should never be invented in the first place._ But innovation is what drives discovery! You never knew what the next breakthrough was or what its applications would be unless you made the first. 

Brainstorm's fingers tapped the briefcase's surface subconsciously as he sipped his engex, pensive thoughts wandering in the direction of his comrades. None of them truly appreciated him, only what he could do for them, when he was useful. All those years of disgrace, working as hard as he had while stationed at Kimia, his designs constantly rejected by the Ethics Committee. But oh, not anymore. They'd all see his true value, his capability, when the right time came, before paradox wiped it all away, a clean slate.

The exceptions, the few Brainstorm could actually call friend, could be counted on one hand. And as it happened, one of them was right here, nudging at his disrupted EM field with some concern, tentative, as if it was too early to get so personal but Nautica just couldn't resist.

"Shanix for your thoughts?" 

"Oh. Uh. The engex, it's quite good. That's an understatement actually. I-I'm speechless."

The lady smiled a little knowingly but didn't challenge him. Maybe she thought he was just flustered over her company. Which, erm, if he thought about it overmuch he would be. "And the view? Your thoughts?"

"I suppose to say it's 'stellar' would be a pun of horribly epic proportions," Nautica's ample mouthplates twitched, amused. "But it really is quite lovely. And to think, some might consider this undesirable. The cold of space, fuel quills looming overhead, the engine emissions warping the view of space..."

If Brainstorm wasn't so distracted by the movement of those unique lip plates, right about now he'd be a touch worried that his choice of venue was in bad taste.

"...but that's not what you or I see, is it?" she finished.

He met her optics then, and there's an indescribable moment. Perhaps this is what kinship feels like, a certain synergy of thought, _like_ calling to _like_. Brainstorm smiled softly behind the facemask, optics brightening. "No, it's not. I see freedom and progress and...beauty." Okay, he meant the stars. Or maybe he didn't...

"Yes, exactly! It's a true wonder, isn't it? The openness of space but enjoyed from this protected little pocket, and that vapor trail! I--"

"Yes! The way the heat and emissions turn the blackness of space into an illusionary rainbow of--"

They were both gesturing at once, somewhat animatedly, and in the midst Nautica's cylinder of engex was knocked softly from her hand. She leaned over as it floated past Brainstorm's helm, making a grab for it, but the scientist already had it mostly in hand, wrangling the majority of the drifting contents back into its glass container.

"Think you lost this--" Brainstorm said, but as he turned back to her, he lost himself for a moment in those curious blue-green optics, hovering so very close, their EM fields brushing softly together.

And there's another moment, one that seemed to hang suspended between them like the few droplets of escaped engex did in the freedom of space; but unlike the droplets that the ship slowly left behind, there was a stirring gravity seeming to pull the two of them together. 

"I..." he started, lamely offering the drink.

"You didn't let me finish."

"....oh?"

Another curve of Nautica's lip plates, but into a shape Brainstorm hadn't seen before. "It's not the best view out here." And then those lip plates alighted on his faceplate, right near the mouth hatch, like a tiny star, making the place her kiss touched him tingle with a preternatural warmth.

"Does it ever come off?" she asked as she drew back slightly. "The facemask?"

"No," Brainstorm said reflexively, but the hesitation of second thoughts was apparent in his field. It was moments like this where he regretted the need to leave the Lost Light. But he was grateful at least, that in the past she'd be safe on Caminus, unaffected by the things he must do, the changing of Cybertron's history. Perhaps they would never meet again, but that simply meant he had to make the best of the _now_ , right? 

"No, but...for you? I think I'd make an exception."


End file.
